Cry Your Heart Out
by KevyGrayce
Summary: The workshop is dead silent. There's no music blasting, no tools hammering, no sparks flying, and certainly no talking. Tony and Peter sit at their respective workbenches in silence. Peter is upset but won't tell Tony why. Of course, they devolve into a full blown argument.


Hey all! Happy 2020! It's only fitting that the first fic of the new year be angsty hurt/comfort :) I hope everyone's year is starting off good and that school is going well for those who've started back up! Let the Irondad and Spiderson heal your soul 3000

Request from jellystarzone on Instagram: Maybe Tony and Peter fight (but in the end they just cuddle).

Have fun and stay safe❤ 💛💚💙💜

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The workshop is dead silent. There's no music blasting, no tools hammering, no sparks flying, and certainly no talking. Tony and Peter sit at their respective workbenches in silence. Neither of them are working on anything, but neither are attempting to start a conversation either. Logically, Tony knows he should initiate it. He's the adult, after all. Yet, out of pure stubbornness, he remains silent. He sits with his arms crossed and doesn't move from his spot facing away from the kid.

Peter, on the other hand, wishes he could simply speak up. He _wishes _it could be that easy. But it isn't. Instead of facing it head on, he avoids it, choosing to stare at his untouched project instead. He hasn't worked on it since they got to the workshop. However, in his defense, he hasn't seen Tony do much work either.

They both sit in the crushing silence, waiting for the other to crack first. Finally, it ends up being Tony.

"We need to talk about this," he huffs out as he sharply turns to face Peter. His frustration is evident and he's quickly losing what's left of his patience. Peter doesn't look up. The silent treatment? From _Peter? _That's out of character, and Tony knows it, but he doesn't want to acknowledge how much the situation is affecting Peter. He just wants to be angry so that he can solve the problem without experiencing too many emotions. "No, you don't _get _to ignore me. Not after I find you swinging to kingdom come in the middle of a _school day." _The silence envelops them again following his frustrated words. Peter doesn't so much as move, let alone make an effort to explain himself. With a deep breath, Tony runs both his hands through his hair.

"I don't want to talk about it," Peter finally speaks up, his voice lacking its usual emotion. As Tony stares, the kid remains completely motionless. If Peter would talk to him, he could help. Instead, the dismissal makes him even more irritated.

"That's not an option," he lectures in a tight tone, raising his index finger as if challenging Peter to rebel. To be honest, Peter is tempted to do so. He's trying his best to bury the feelings from today deep, deep down so he doesn't have to feel the hurt. Today just sucked and he doesn't even want to think about it, but now Tony is trying to make him _talk _about it? No way in hell. "I need to know you're safe at school without having to worry about you defecting like Ferris Bueller to play hooky. I need to be able to trust you," Tony continues to reprimand. Peter's fists clench under the workbench and his jaw tightens.

"I said-"

"I _know _what you said. _I'm _saying that you don't get a choice in this," Tony counters as he stands, frustration shifting into anger. He keeps talking, but Peter stops listening. Peter can't handle the scolding that only makes his senses go into overdrive. He doesn't want to hear or feel anymore. All he wants is for it all to stop and give him a moment to breathe.

"I can handle myself, okay?! I don't need help!" he snaps, breathing heavily. The most tempting route at this point is to punch a wall. Tony is completely caught off guard by the outburst and stops mid-sentence, his mouth ajar in shock. It doesn't take long for him to recover and he maintains an unbothered expression while raising his eyebrows. Despite his concern, his impatience gets the better of him.

"You can handle it yourself, huh?" There's no response, so he nods to himself. "Fine. Turn off the lights when you're finished." With that, he promptly snatches his jacket off the workbench and all but stomps out of the workshop.

As soon as Tony's steps are out of earshot, Peter can't contain his temper and brings his fists down on the workbench. What's merely meant to be a release of his anger has enough force behind it to bend the metal surface, leaving behind two crater-like indents.

This doesn't do much to appease his rage and he ends up swiping the splayed out tools onto the floor. The various tools hit the floor with echoing clangs and he physically has to stop himself from pulling his hair out. He holds his head in his hands and takes slow, deep breaths until the anger fades away and all that's left is hurt. And guilt. And regret. He's aware that he was being difficult and shouldn't have gone out Spider-Manning during school, but he was just so fed up with people. The fact that Tony tried interrogating him about it certainly didn't help. Still, he feels bad for snapping at his mentor. Deep-seated guilt settles in the pit of his stomach as the event from school plays over and over in his mind…and he can't stop the tears that spill over. They flow down his cheeks and drip off his chin, only proving how weak he feels.

With a heavy heart and a crushed soul, he picks himself up and walks over to the couch. He desperately needs a nap to sleep his troubles away. If it works for procrastination, it works for emotional despair too.

"Lights, Fri," he mumbles as he plops onto the couch. It isn't the most comfortable couch in the world, but his exhausted body doesn't care. The lights dim at his request and he hopes beyond hope that somehow he'll be able to clear his mind long enough to sleep.

It's about three hours later that Tony begins to feel something dangerously close to resembling worry. If he were being honest, he expected Peter to come up the elevator no more than twenty minutes after their argument. He even waited in the penthouse for a good hour for the doors to slide open and an overly apologetic Peter to burst in. The hot cocoa he made for what he expected to be an emotional heart-to-heart is now cold. Of course the kid is going to make it even harder on him.

For once, he swallows his pride and decides to extend the olive branch first. Setting down his _cold _cocoa, he walks to the elevator and descends to the workshop level. The first thing he notices is that the workshop is dark. The lights are off. Well, he did tell Peter to turn the lights off, but that would imply that the kid left. His heart beats slightly faster at the kid going out on patrol in a dangerously emotional state just to spite him. He bursts into the room and frantically looks around until his eyes settle on the sleeping lump tucked into the couch. The worry practically leaks out of his body as he takes a calming breath.

The next thing that catches his eye is the crumpled metal of his workbench and then the tools scattered on the floor. How the hell is he supposed to buff out dents like those? The momentary concern is once again replaced annoyance. The kid trashes his workshop and then decides to take a nap? Well, he sure has something to say about that. Against his better judgement, and his conscience, he marches over to Peter and carefully rubs the teen's shoulder.

"Pete," he attempts to wake the kid up. "Peter," he repeats. This time, Peter shifts and stretches his arms before opening his eyes. His eyes don't want to stay open, so he blinks them a few times to clear the blurriness. He squints up at Tony.

"Mr. Stark? Everything okay?" he mumbles in a tired voice, still not fully aware. It's hard to see Tony's face in the dark, so he hopes it isn't an emergency.

"Yeah, everything's fine," Tony answers, even though he wants to point out that them having a fight isn't remotely fine. "Decided to do some redecorating before your nap? You left the workshop a mess. Not to mention there's some sizable dents in your bench that weren't there before," he points out a bit too curtly. That immediately brings Peter to his senses. The guilt sinks in as he realizes what he did, and with it comes the shame. _He invited you into his home and you trash it? Talk about disrespectful. What were you thinking? _

"I'm, I'm so sorry, Mr. Stark." He trips over his words and is up on his feet in the blink of an eye. Just having woken up, he stumbles to the mess and starts to clean up the tools. Tony sighs and rubs his forehead.

"Kid." He tries to get Peter's attention, but the teen is too caught up in trying to fix everything. He's always fixing everything. _It's my fault, _Peter internally berates, _I yelled at him and screwed up his workshop and now he's mad and- _"Kid, it's fine. We'll fix it tomorrow. Just-" Tony is cut off by the sound of a quiet sob. His eyes narrow in confusion as he tries to see in the dimmed light. He walks closer to see Peter kneeling near the tools, some of them in his hand while his other hand hides his face.

"I wasn't trying to make a mess. The last thing I want to do is make things harder for you," Peter whispers, his voice thick with bottled up emotions. "I didn't mean to yell at you, I'm sorry." The tools in his shaking hand clatter to the floor again as he tries to lessen his cries. He brings both hands up to cover his mouth and squeezes his eyes shut, tears falling. Tony immediately crouches in front of the kid when he realizes what's happening.

"Hey, it's okay. I'm not mad, see? Not mad," he tries to assure, placing firm hands on Peter's shoulders. Peter shakes his head as his body trembles with barely held back sobs. He knows he's just more emotional than usual, but that coupled with being woken up makes all the emotions flood out. There's nothing he can do to stop the tears or the way his breathing hiccups as he cries. Tony wants to strangle himself for letting it get to this point. He pulls Peter forward so that the kid's head is resting on his shoulder. "I shouldn't have woken you up for something so stupid. I'm sorry." _What I should've done was handled it like an adult to begin with, _he counters in his head.

"It's not your fault." Peter sniffs and shivers slightly from the cold air of the workshop. Tony notices, wrapping his arms around Peter to pull him closer. "I'm just sensitive 'cause I just woke up," Peter halfheartedly explains. The warmth of Tony's hug already serves to calm him down enough to feel exhausted all over again. His head throbs from crying and his eyes are puffy from the tears. Tony rocks him minutely in hopes that it'll calm the harsh breaths.

"Did I upset you that much…?" he wonders aloud and subconsciously rubs his hand through Peter's hair. Peter closes his eyes at the gentle ministrations.

"No, it's okay," he assures. Honestly, he just wants to sleep. He doesn't want to fight with another person and he certainly doesn't want to move, so sleeping is the best option in his opinion. "It was just other stuff and I shouldn't make you worry about my problems."

"You're problems are my problems, kid," Tony soothes, which is still a weird feeling. His comforting tendencies are getting better, but the feeling is still foreign. "C'mon, up we go." He lifts both of them up and walks them to the couch to sit them more comfortably. The whole way, he doesn't release his firm hold and Peter doesn't attempt to look up. "Okay, let's try this again. Let's pretend I was actually a good mentor-"

"You are."

"-And respected your privacy of not wanting to talk, but then scolded you for going out in the suit during school. Sound good? We on the same page?" Tony easily offers. He wants it to be over and he doesn't want Peter to hurt anymore. Especially not because of him. The kid has been hurt enough in his life. He feels Peter nod his head before looking up, doe-eyed and vulnerable.

"It's okay, it's just…I don't wanna get into why, but Ned and I fought today. And it, it was over something so _stupid, _but we got so mad and said dumb stuff." Peter wipes another tear off his cheek. "And I can't lose him, Mr. Stark. He's my best friend and I, and I just, I couldn't stay there. I needed to clear my head." Once again, Peter's voice becomes wobbly and thick as he recounts the fight. His heart aches and the anxiety makes his hands tingle at the thought of Ned being mad at him. At the thought of him hurting Ned's feelings. He can't lose someone else. Tony completely understands that feeling. He's been there one too many times with Rhodey.

"I know it's rough, bud," he empathizes. "I promise you two'll work it out. Best friends always do, trust me. He might be mad now, but you'll talk it over. Fights happen and you're smart kids. You won't lose him." His fingers play with Peter's curls as he does his best to calm the kid. He rests his head against the back of the couch and Peter gets settled on his chest.

"You think so?" Peter double checks, his tone painfully hopeful. Tony's heart just about breaks.

"Of course I do. And I'm a genius, so you have to listen to me," he adds to lighten the conversation. Peter chuckles weakly. He isn't anywhere near feeling better, but it's a start. And Tony makes it easier to bear. Tony sighs deeply and silently wishes he could take all of Peter's pain and trauma away. For now, all he can do is help in the best way he can.

"Go back to sleep. You're exhausted, kid. We'll worry about this later, okay?" After waking the kid up once, he sure as hell isn't going to keep Peter from returning to his nap. At the words, Peter lets his eyes droop and enjoys the security as well as the comfort Tony provides.

"M'kay," Peter agrees without a fight. He's asleep again within minutes and Tony is left to stare down at the simultaneously shattered yet perfect human being in his arms. With a slight smile, he kisses the top of Peter's head and gets comfortable for a well-deserved nap of his own.

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Next one shot: BONUS ONE SHOT! January 16th, Team Spidey and Dysfunctional Family oriented for a special friend of mine!

Thank you for reading!❤ 💛💚💙💜

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